Translate

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Lichens on Pendunculate Oak, Quercus robur, Lag Wood, 11.03.24


Habitat: Low weald clays. Mixture of ancient Pendunculate oaks, Hornbeam and Hazel (coppiced),and Hawthorne

what3words location: ///crunch.digests.hoping

Lichens:

Lepraria sp., probably L. finkii,Fluffy Dust Lichen

 

Phlyctis argena, Whitewash Lichen



Mosses:

Rhynchostegium confertum,Clustered Feather-Moss



Ferns:

Polypodium vulgare, Common Polypody fern

 

Non-epiphytc organism on the tree:

Andricus kollarinOak Marble Gall Wasp



Significant organisms near the tree:

 

Anemonoides nemorosa,Wood Anemone; an ancient wood indicator plany


Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Lichens on a Pedunculate Oak, Quercus robur. Parham Park. 04.03.24

 
 
Habitat: Pasture woodland. Parham Park is a medieval deer park situated on Folkestone Sands at the foot of the South Downs. It has one of the richest epiphytic lichen floras in south east England. https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/PDFsForWeb/Citation/1000637.pdf 

what3words location: ///nightlife.souk.thuds
 
Lichens:

Probably Diploicia canescens, White Pleated Lichen, further investigation necessary

Cladonia caespitici, Stubby-stalked Cladonia

Chrysothrix candelari, Gold Dust Lichen
 
 
Pyrrhospora quernea
 
 
Melanelixia subaurifera, Abraded Camouflage Lichen
 
 
Flavoparmelia caperata, Common Greenshield Lichen
 

 
Evernia prunastri, Oakmoss
 
 
Possibly Alyxoria varia, Bark Scribble, further investigation necessary
 


Mosses:
 
Rhynchostegium confertum, Clustered Feather-Moss
 





Lichens on a Sessile Oak, Quercus patreae. Fairlight Glen. 05.03.24


Habitat: High Weald ancient woodland; oceanic micro-climate in a steep High Weald ghyll. In Fairlight Glen there is the famous Dripping Well waterfall - the only location of Dumortier's Liverwort, Dumortiera hirsuta, east of Devon). The ghyll carves a ravine out of the rocks of the Tunbridge Wells series, where they meet the see.

waht3words location: ///collides.lion.remodels
 
Lichens:
 
It's trunk has vertical stripes of white and green lichen. The white lichen is mostly an old wood lichen, probably Opegrapha vermicellifera (as C- and K- to chemical reagent spot tests). 
 

The greens (on the wetter side of the trunk) are a mixture of probably Rinodina roboris (with black apothecia).
 
 
 
Normandina pulchella; Elf Ear Lichen
 
 
and a Lepraia dust lichen, probably L. finkii. 

 
Mosses: Amblystegium serpens, Creeping Feather-moss
 
 
Liverwort: Metzgeria furcata, Forked Veilwort
 
 
Ferns:
 
Polypodium sp. probably either. P. vulgare or P. interjectum Fern to high up to get a sporangia sample 
 
 

 





Saturday, March 2, 2024

Lichens at Ashcombe Bottom, between Brighton and Lewes. A relict of ancient South Downs forest 01.04.21

Ashcombe Bottom, 4km west of Lewes, is one of the very few ancient woodlands left on the East Sussex Downs. ... the hazel coppice supports a colony dormice - an exclusively arboreal rodent - to which for millennia this wood must have been a kind of ark in an ocean of open fields. Among the hazels grow many spreading oaks, their branches festooned with polypody and harts tongue ferns. Oaks dislike chalk but thrive here because the acid clays deposited on top the chalk have not been dispersed by ploughing or erosion.Owen Johnson (1998) The Sussex Tree Book p.24. 


Normandina pulchella Elf Ears Lichen with Fruliana Dilatata, Dilated Scalewort 
Parmotrema perlatum, Black Stone Flower and Fruillana dilatata, Dilated Scalewort. growing on an Oak 


 An Usnea sp, possibly Usnea cornuta s. l., high up on the branches of the fallen oak above 


Xanthoria parietina Golden Shield Lichen
  

Probably Lepraria finkii Fluffy Dust Lichen

 

Flavoparmelia caperata Common Greenshield Lichen; common on may trees in Ashcombe Bottom 

 

Ramalina farinacea Farinose Cartilage Lichen, a very common lichen on Hawthorn and other trees 

 

For a fuller account of all the species I saw at Ashcombe Bottom see:  

Ashcombe Bottom, East Sussex. Relict ancient woodland on the South Downs. Birds, vascular plants, bryophytes, lichen & fungi. 01.04.21